Rapid Response: Botched execution, changed views?

Margaret Cox with Oklahoma Coalition Against the Death Penalty holds a sign protesting the death penalty at the State Capitol in Oklahoma City.
(Photo:
AP
)

Question: Did the problems with a recent, botched execution in Oklahoma change your views in any way on the death penalty? How so?

• No, these people are killers of innocent people and deserve the death penalty. They had no mercy for their victims and deserve no mercy for their actions.

Carolyn Foust

Lafayette

• Absolutely not. Where is the outcry for the terribly cruel and unusual punishment administered by these murderers to totally innocent victims? If anti-death penalty pharmaceuticals would quit withholding the usual death drugs, these criminals would not suffer like this.

Tom Haynie

Buffalo

• I have trouble finding much sympathy since the man who was executed buried his victim alive. I wonder how long it took for her to die?

Diana Vice

Lafayette

• If the Oklahoma governor’s brazen defense of the entire event is to be accepted, we now have a whole new standard for what does not count as “cruel and unusual”.

Jeff Ridenour

Crawfordsville

• I have never liked a death penalty. Perhaps lifetime in prison would punish one more.

Shelby Branstetter

Lafayette

• They’re killing a guy and care whether it’s painful? The Constitution stops the government from meting out cruel and inhumane punishment. But get real. They’re not disemboweling him, for Pete’s sake. Enough with the bleeding-heart demands that the murderers slip away into a peaceful, storybook land. I say hang ‘em.

Scott Schnarr

Rossville

• No, my view is the same. The government has no right to murder its own citizens in cold blood. We should be better than that. Plus, with all the people who have been wrongly convicted and released, how can the death penalty be supported?

Mark Rumps

Lafayette

• No, Oklahoma botched it pure and simple. I’d like to see them outsource executions to Texas. They got a pretty good handle on it.

Edward Priest

Battle Ground

• Not at all. The death penalty is bad. It uses one terrible crime to justify another, it is applied unevenly, it sometimes results in the death of an innocent person, and it does not stop crime.

Noemi Ybarra

Lafayette

• No. Wouldn’t mind if the method of death was same as they inflicted on their victim. Hard to rally much compassion for this issue.

Bud Wang

Shadeland

• No, it only reinforced my belief that the death penalty should be abolished. If there’s any truth to the phrase that you’re judged by the company you keep, this list of nations that do or don’t have the death penalty should make supporters change their minds.

Frank Arnold

Lafayette

• No. Capital criminals waive their right to life when they commit their crimes. Executing convicted capital criminals is neither cruel nor unusual.

Nate Pfeiffer

Wabash Township

• No, my thoughts have not changed on the death penalty. Why are we so worried about any death row inmate? The guy in Oklahoma raped and killed a young girl. How terrified she must have been. How on earth can we worry about a little discomfort someone that deserves the death penalty goes through. We drag this thing out far too long.

Jon Sexson

Lafayette

• No. Dead is dead. The courts have ruled that the criminal dies for his crimes. Pain and suffering has nothing to do with it.

Mike Marpoe

Lafayette

• Not at all. I’ll bet the cause of him being on death row would have been harder to watch.

Dan Sommers

West Lafayette

• Firing squad at the ready outside the courtroom? But maybe there’s hope that a parasite will change, if only given enough years among similar others. How about a victim’s father, husband, grandfathers, sons, brothers and uncles lining up, each for a few minutes of quality time alone with the gentleman?

Kurt Burnett

Lafayette

• As Willy the Shake had it: “Stand not upon the manner of your going”. Enough said.

Ed Posey

West Lafayette

• Would have liked for it to have been more efficient, but it hasn’t changed my opinion at all. Maybe it was payback for shooting someone and then watching them be buried alive. Possibly another example of poetic justice.

Terry Smith

Shadeland

• No, my views haven’t changed. The system is flawed to the point that executions should be halted. If the uncertainty of guilt is ever removed without flaws, then the convicted will be getting off light, by my estimation.

Mike Dudgeon

Lafayette

• The troubled Oklahoma execution does not change my views on the imperative of the having the death penalty. It does illustrate the need to enhance the effectiveness and speed of execution methods.

Bert Chapman

Lafayette

• Two wrongs don’t make a right. If people cannot legally commit murder, how can the government justify the murder of convicts? Why is the government less accountable to the law than I am?

Jerry Hirschinger

West Lafayette

• Heck no. We’re Americans, and we love violence and death.

Rich Trent

Lafayette

• I think the death penalty should exist for some types of extremely heinous murders. When a person does this, they should forfeit their life on this earth.

Arlan Stavnheim

Lafayette

• I’ll be honest. I have never really been for the death penalty. Taking a life even the unborn isn’t for us to decide.

Mark Acles

Lafayette

• Heck no. If the good drugs are unavailable, use the “E” chair or bullets. It’s the death penalty, not nap time.

Jack Lahrman

Sheffield Township

• No, absolutely not. I have no problem with the death penalty. It should be fairly administered across the legal system. I have not heard one word on the victim how much she suffered at the hands of her killer. It truly amazes me there is more concern for the killer than the victim.

Dennis Donoho

Sedalia

• Not in the least. The victims felt pain. So what if the person being executed does? Doesn’t bother me one iota.

Harold Williams

Shadeland

• Awww, darn. So he suffered some. Well, they got accomplished what was intended, so what’s the big deal? Actually, the crew should have gone out to lunch and come back later. These crybabies that hold their candles and pray make me sick. Doing away with the death penalty is just going to make it easier for these animals to keep committing horrid crimes.

Cliff Davenport

Rossville

• I would think that lying there watching them inject chemicals into my system would be much more inhumane than a 32-caliber bullet to the head. It would be a lot less stressful, more humane, a lot quicker, and what does a 32 cost these days? About 6 cents?

James Derringer

Lafayette

• Absolutely not. The filthy SOB is still died, albeit later. Too bad he didn’t think of his victims’ comfort.

Triva Garcev

Crown Point

• The problems with the execution in Oklahoma did not affect my views at all regarding the death penalty. I believe if you murder someone that you should pay with your life. I do think that they should have had a medical professional to make sure the IV was put in correctly. Oklahoma needs to change or improve its medical procedures for the sake of the prisoners.

Deborah J. Kingdollar

Colfax

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